People, Process, and Technology Maturity Levels for Successful Technology Implementation by State Departments of Transportation

The demand for safe, reliable, and higher-quality infrastructure systems often increases the complexity of transportation construction projects and necessitates more comprehensive evaluation methods. This often leads to the incorporation of technologies for oversight and management. With a focus on effective technology implementation, this research stretches beyond simply evaluating technologies to consider integrating the technology with personnel and procedures at departments of transportation (DOTs). Drawing from literature and a survey of state DOT personnel, this study applies and evaluates maturity models for people, process, and technology with regard to technology implementation at DOTs. The findings support the need for understanding technology implementation in the aspects of people, process, and technology maturity to improve the probability of implementation success. The framework allows DOTs to move toward higher maturity levels and improve the likelihood of implementation success. The study’s objective is to assess the importance of people, process, and technology as implementation dimensions that state DOTs need to focus on for successfully implementing technologies. The idea and scope of the paper can be extended to any new technology implementation efforts at DOTs, including Automatic Identification and Data Capture technologies, emerging sensing and wireless technologies, safety technologies, and others. The maturity models presented enable organizations to audit and benchmark their status for technology implementation, and the relative levels allow these organizations to advance from basic to advanced stages. This paper introduces three maturity models for people, process, and technology, their adaptation to DOT operations, and their possible future use, as presented through preliminary survey results. The final result of this study provides a maturity model methodology for successful technology implementation and a self-assessment tool for state DOTs to gauge and improve their current maturity levels. Preliminary validation of these products was conducted via a workshop of subject matter experts, and the results indicate that state DOTs can use these products to self-assess their organization’s maturity and devise a plan as required for improved technology implementation.